Christiansborg Castle: The Ruins

So as I mentioned in the previous blog post, the Ruins underneath the Castle deserves its own blog because there was so much history down there and I took lots of pictures. I really enjoyed learning all the unique history and looking at all the artifacts.  


During the year of 1000 a small town called Havn (Haven), today knows as Copenhagen, grew into a small trading center at the coast of the Sound. King Valdemar the Great gave the town to Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, who in 1167 raised a castle at the shores before the town as a defense against pirates. Havn was a ferry station between the provinces of Sealand and Scania as well as a trading center and a fishing hamlet. During the Middle Ages the sound was tilled with shoals of herring, sometimes in so large numbers that it was possible to scoop up the herring from the sea. 

Denmark was marked by troubles and going through a time with several kings in the middle of the 1100s. It did not come to an end until Valdemar the Great became the only king of the country in 1157. Then Valdemar and his allied began to build castles up and down the country in order to invigorate the power of the kingdom.

In the ruins it is possible to see the remains of two buildings: Bishop Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen Castle. The Castle of Bishop Absalon of Roskilde was built in 1167 and destroyed in 1369, after which Copenhagen Castle was built.

Both buildings consisted of a ring wall. Inside the wall were the Castles' buildings and from the high ring wall it was possible to fight down the enemy.


The toilet of the time was a "secret"; it only consisted of a drain, which ended right below the ring wall. The drain to the left belonged to a house inside Absalon's Castle. The drain to the right is the bottom of a shaft, which have been leading up to a toilet on a floor higher up in the tower.

The ring wall continues behind the tower. This means that the tower on Absalon's Castle is a later extension to the ring wall.  The ring wall is built of limestone, while the tower is built of rocks. It was not until the end of the 12th century that bricks became a common building material. The tower of the ring wall became part of Copenhagen Castle as Bagertårnet (the Baker's Tower). This can be seen on the outside of the tower, where new bricks have been added. 

Absalon's Castle was built of limestone, which together with other kinds of unhewn stones was a natural building material in the medieval Denmark. The limestone for the building of Absalon's Castle came from Stevns Klint, where blocks were sawed out by stone cutters, while the chalk still was humid and soft.

Most of the castles had a ring wall with embrasure. Each man had a place by the embrasure and was responsible from an area outside the ring wall to fire at. Inside the Castle's wall machicolations made it possible to pour down boiling oil or tar over the enemy. n 1306 the Norwegian navel forces attack the Castle but they are unsuccessful. Absalon's Castle was attacked several times by the Wends, a Slavonic people who lived at the southern coasts of the Baltic Sea. The Wends worshipped a four-headed God named Svantevit to whom they sacrificed in a large temple in Arkona on the island of Rugen.

In 1368 during the reign of Valdemar Atterdag, Copenhagen was conquered by the united enemies of the king led by the Hanseatic towns of northern Germany. After a siege of one and a half month, the castle had to surrender.  One of the ultimate objectives of the war was 'simply to destroy and ruin the house in Copenhagen."  This objective was reached in 1369, when 47 Hanseatic stone cutters destroyed the castle and left it in ruins.

After the destruction of Absalon's Catsle, the importance of defending Copenhagen still existed. Consequently, the Bishop of Roskilde built a new castle, which was taken over by the Danish King Erik of Pommerania in 1417. Since that time, the castle has been known as Copenhagen Castle. The large tower of the Copenhagen Castle, the Blue Tower, was built in the 15th century. It was a tower of defense, but later on it became famous as a state prison. Both poor and rich people could end up in the dudgeons of the Tower.  The Tower was constructed up against the ring wall. 

From 1417 Copenhagen Castle served as the residence of the Danish Kings wen they visited Copenhagen. Only after the introduction of the absolute monarchy, it became the kings' permanent residence.  Leonora Christina is probably the most famous prisoner, who has been locked up in the Blue Tower.  Nevertheless, she was not imprisoned in a dungeon, she had a room on one of the floors upstairs. She was a prisoner from 1663 to 1685.  Leonora Christina was the daughter of King Christian the Fourth but spent close to 22 years in the Blue Tower, a prison at Copenhagen Castle. Her husband, Corfitz Ulfeldt took part in Sweden's attack on Denmark in 1658. The new King Frederik III, accused Leonora Christina and her husband of treason.

In May 1685, Leonora Christina was finally released from the Blue Tower by King Christian the Fifth. She was 64 years old but had not forgotten that she was a princess. She demanded to leave the Blue Tower in style and waited in her cell until a carriage was sent.

In 1731, Copenhagen Castle was torn down in order to be replaced by the first Christiansborg Palace. For the new Palace, conduit pipes were established through the ruins of the two former buildings. The ruin of the Blue Tower has no longer its original size, as some of the stones were used for the construction of the first Christiansborg. In 1728 Copenhagen was on fire, and consequently, it was necessary to reuse the building materials.

The crypt of Viborg cathedral, built ca. 1150 gives an idea of the kind of romanesque architecture represent by the church stones.

Stoves like this one have been placed at Copenhagen Castle, the first and the second Christiansborg. Every winter small fires broke out in the poorly cleaned and superheated stove pipes.  It is considered to be the cause of both fires of the Palace in 1794 and 1884.  The fire buckets were found at the loft of the present Christiansborg Palace. The buckets are dated back to 1742 and 1781 respectively.  They have probably been used for fighting both fires of the Palace.

The cause of both fires was presumable the result of a sooten-up, superheated stovepipe.  In 1794 the palace had no fire walls and behind the walls there was a system of canals and stovepipes. Through this system of canals and pipes the fire spread quickly from floor to floor. 

In the October 3, 1884 (second fire) many valuables were saved from the flames of the second Christianborg Palace, but the main building burned out. The royal family did not live at the Palace but even so King Christian the Ninth and his sons participated personally in the rescue operations.  The fire broke out under Riddersalen (the Great Hall) in a stove and it spread through a similar system of pipes and canals like the fire of the first Palace.  The firemen did not know the system very well, so despite firewalls, irons doors, fire engines and hydrants, the Palace burned down in one day.

Originally this stone was a part of the decoration, probably from the first Christiansborg's Great Hall. Later it was turned over and chipped as a cornerstone for the projection of the front on the second Christiansborg. 

The left half of the pilaster capital from the facade facing the courtyard of the second Christiansborg. 

The upper part of a column in a flat relief on a wall, also known as a pilaster capital, originates from the decorations of the first Christiansborg. 

Today Christiansborg Palace houses several different institutions. In one of the wings of the Palace's main building resides the Folketing (the Parliament). The Royal Reception Rooms are located in the other wing.  Above the reception rooms, the Prime Ministry's Department is placed in an apartment, which originally should have been the residence of the royal family. Furthermore, the Supreme Court resides at the Palace. 

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